Communication is Key
by Texan Red Rose
Summary: On a whim, the members of Team RWBY decide to surprise Weiss with a gift! Unfortunately, there's a bit of a disconnect.


**Disclaimer:** For psychicrebelartisan! Based on a joke.

* * *

Ruby narrowed her eyes, flipping her pencil around to erase the last line she'd written. Blake laid on her best, entirely engrossed in her latest book while Yang did push-ups between their expertly crafted- if she did say so herself- bunk beds. A nice, calm weekend filled with some quality downtime that each of them spent in their own way.

Well, honestly, she'd rather _not_ be spending her morning studying for their upcoming test in Grimm Studies, but her partner had them on a bit of a schedule. Seeing as Weiss had gone off to the combat rooms two hours ago, Ruby either had to study now or get an earful and _then_ study, which always kinda put a damper on the whole thing.

"Did you know that Creepers can congregate into colonies of more than two hundred?"

"I thought it was one-fifty?" Yang paused, pushing out a breath. "Or was that how many push-ups I was on? Crap."

"You were on one hundred and fifteen; you've been counting under your breath the whole time." Blake flicked one of her feline ears, the ribbon she used for her bow set aside for the moment. "And they just recently discovered the colony size; one-fifty was the old estimate."

"Oh, cool."

Ruby chuckled. "Sorry, Sis, didn't mean to throw you off."

"Hey, you probably helped me ace the test!"

"Yes, because missing that perfect score would be oh so tragic."

"Ah, c'mon, Blakey, don't be a-"

"Finish that sentence and I'm throwing my book at you."

Ruby smiled, trying hard not to laugh out loud. No doubt Yang was about to make a very specific pun, one she'd made countless times before but got shot down before it could even come out this time. A quick glance over proved that Blake wasn't actually mad about it and probably wouldn't throw her book- she usually at least grabbed her bookmark if it was going to leave her hands- but her sister relented anyway with a chuckle before returning to her exercise.

Then, the door opened and Weiss drug herself inside, obviously worn out from her practicing. "The next time Pyrrha suggests we spar together, someone please remind me of _this_ moment."

Ruby winced, collecting up her papers and setting them in her book- as close to a bookmark as _she_ ever came- and turning around in her chair. "Oh, she didn't go easy on ya, did she?"

"Unfortunately, I'm quite certain she _did_." The heiress groused, her combat outfit showing worse for wear and Myrtenaster still in hand. Which, odd- usually, Weiss secured her weapon in the assigned locker near the combat practice arenas; she only brought it back to the room for maintenance. "Apparently, my skills are still in need of some refinement."

"What happened to Myrtenaster?"

"Hm?" She raised a brow at Blake before looking down, the pinch to her brows indicating annoyance. "Dust damnit."

"You didn't even realize you'd carried it all the way up here, did ya?" Yang chuckled, pausing in her exercise to sit back on her heels with a grin. "Yeah, sparring against Pyrrha kinda wipes your mind blank. She's _really_ good."

"That's one way of putting it." She turned around. "I'll be back-"

"Hey, wait." Although she couldn't really tell at that distance, she _thought_ the dust rapier sported a few new knicks along the guard. "I have to go down to check on Crescent Rose anyway. I'll take it back for you."

Briefly, a war raged, between a chiding remark on weapons not needing _daily_ maintenance and her exhaustion from the spar. Ultimately, the latter won out. "Fine. I'm in dire need of a shower and a fresh change of clothes anyway." She walked over, handing off Myrtenaster before heading to collect up her small armada of hair care products- put to shame only by Yang's- and other essential shower supplies before heading out the door. "If I'm not back in two hours, assume I've expired and let me rest in peace."

Once the door closed, Yang clicked her tongue. "She's always so hard on herself. Girl's gotta lighten up."

"Good luck with that," Blake said, almost returning to her book but catching something out of the corner of her eye. "Ruby? Are you okay?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah." She held up Myrtenaster, which she'd been inspecting thoroughly for the past few minutes. "Weiss was so tired, she didn't notice the damage, and I'm not sure if I can fix it."

"Whoa, back up, damage?" Yang got to her feet and came over, whistling low.

As far as weapons went, Myrtenaster had a fairly straight forward design. The chambers that housed the dust were probably the most complicated part; as luck would have it, the plating that covered them was the part that was damaged, bent at such an angle that it _probably_ wouldn't cause any functional issues but it definitely _looked_ like changing out the dust would be a bit more difficult than it should be. Add to that a few scratches in the otherwise durable metal and Ruby had to sigh, shaking her head.

"These plates need to be replaced and I don't have the spare materials to do it." She winced. "At least, not in white. I have an extra casing for Crescent Rose's headpiece but-"

"Well, hold on; there's machines down in the shop garage that could easily cut a new plate. We just need to pick up some Hunter grade metal." Yang went over to where her scroll sat on the dresser, smiling as she tapped on an icon. "Yeah, I should have enough to grade some raw metal. How much would we need?"

Without hesitation, she pulled a fresh piece of paper out and started scribbling away, rounding up to make sure they'd have enough; she could eyeball it pretty well but definitely wanted to err on the safe side. While she was at it, she did a rough blueprint so she could visualize how they'd need to machine it in order to make a seamless replacement.

After a few more calculations, she circled the ending number with a smile. "There."

"Sweet, I can afford that." Then, Yang winced. "Not sure how we're going to get the detailing down, though."

"I can do that part." Blake offered, setting her bookmark between the pages and getting off the bed, amber eyes tracing along the undamaged plate before she nodded. "It's not too different from calligraphy."

"You know calligraphy?"

"It's a hobby."

"Great!" Ruby quickly wrote down the weight and specifications of the metal they'd need on a separate paper, handing it off to her sister. "While you're grabbing the materials, I'll get to work on a better schematic."

"We can hide Myrtenaster under my bed until it's done." At the curious looks she received, Blake merely shrugged. "It's not like we can put it under _your_ beds."

"Point." Yang snatched up the paper. "Back in an hour!"

"I'll meet you down in the garage!" She called out as her sister threw on her jacket, shaking her head. "Not sure what to tell Weiss about where Yang and I went, though."

"Leave that part to me and send me a text when it's my turn." Blake patted her shoulder. "Trust me, I know how to keep a secret."

Ruby laughed, bending over the desk to start working in earnest on the dimensions.

* * *

Later that night, they'd managed to successfully keep their teammate in the dark about the location of her weapon, Ruby somehow managing to convince her that she'd put it in Weiss' locker, just as she said she would. While Blake slipped off to put the finishing touches on the new plates that Yang had machined out, her sister used jokes to thoroughly distract Weiss from all thoughts regarding Myrtenaster, eventually leading to a pun war that had _almost_ made Ruby bang her head against her desk.

One would think she'd be used to it by now but one would be wrong, in fact.

"Ya know what, I gotta be honest, you're starting to get pretty good at this!" Yang laughed, lounging on her bunk while watching Weiss, glaring up at the blonde from hers. "A few more years and they might even be funny."

"Forgive me if I've only had the past few months to indulge in bad habits," Weiss replied, though she couldn't hide the way she preened at that bit of praise. Ruby didn't exactly _get it_ but somehow the heiress responded better to teasing compliments that flat out ones and Yang had picked up on it first. "Now, where is Blake? We should be heading to dinner _sometime_ soon."

"Oh, uh, I'm sure she'll be right here!" She'd pulled the 'team leader' card earlier to keep her partner from sending a text earlier but now found herself running out of excuses. "She said she was on her way!"

"That was _thirty minutes ago_."

"C'mon, Princess." Yang hopped down from her bunk. "Let's go down and grab ourselves a table. You know how Blakey is; I'm sure she just got lost in another book. Ruby can wait for her to get back."

A huff. "Fine." Getting to her feet, the two started for the door. "And you'd better come down soon, Ruby Rose! You're not having _another_ dinner that's only comprised of dessert because the main line's closed!"

"Okay, okay! We'll be down as soon as Blake gets here!" She ducked her head, letting out a sigh of relief the moment the door closed. Now, she could retrieve her scroll, hoping she wouldn't disturb the Faunus. She'd actually never sent the message earlier, for exactly that reason.

A moment later, the door opened and Blake stepped through, letting out her own sigh of relief and leaning back against the door, holding Myrtenaster in her off hand. "That was _close_."

"But she didn't see you, right?"

"No." A small smile. "I thought you two would've gotten her to go down for dinner already. Thankfully, Yang's _loud_."

"No kidding." Bounding to her feet, she quickly closed the distance. "Can I see?"

Wordlessly, Blake handed over the weapon, and she hadn't been kidding about her skills with the engraving. Ruby wouldn't have noticed the swap between the busted plate and the new one, were it not for one slight addition.

 _Property of Weiss Schnee  
_ _A Great Friend and Teammate_

"I… couldn't help but make the addition." Blake shrugged. "It's like Yang said. She needs to lighten up."

"Oh, man, she's going to _love_ this!" Ruby couldn't help but giggle, though she immediately jumped and hid Myrtenaster behind her back- a bad plan, in hindsight- as the door opened and Yang slipped in with a grin.

"Ah, good, that was you in the hall." She made a motion with her hand. "Well, c'mon, don't keep me in the dark! Let's see it!"

She showed Yang Blake's handiwork, all three of them beaming that they'd pulled it off- until they heard a certain _someone_ stomping up the hall.

"Quick!" Amber eyes flicked. "My bed!"

In a flurry of rose petals, Ruby stashed Myrtenaster away, knowing better than to try presenting the repaired weapon now. A few things one did not keep from Weiss Schnee: her beauty rest, her favorite chocolate, or her dinner.

"WOULD YOU-" The door burst open, blue eyes scanning the interior of the room before she continued. " _THREE_ HURRY UP?"

"Yep!"

"Right."

"Coming Weiss!" Ruby hurried to the door, smiling wide.

Yeah, she could be a little demanding from time to time, but Weiss _was_ a great friend! She really couldn't wait to see her expression!

* * *

Although she tried to play it off as best she could, Ruby could hardly sit still. Last night hadn't provided a good opportunity to present Myrtenaster- Weiss went straight to bed after dinner and, again, one did not mess with her beauty sleep- so she sat on her bed, pretending to be engrossed in playing a game on her scroll against Yang, across the room on her own bunk. Blake had dived straight back into her book while Weiss did some studying of her own, though she abruptly stood up after about an hour.

"I'm going for a walk." She grimaced, putting a hand to her lower back. "I'm afraid I'm still sore after yesterday's spar."

"Don't let Pyrrha catch you limping; she'll offer to carry you back to the room." Yang warned with a chuckle. "She takes that stuff hard."

"Duly noted." She scanned around the room. "You three could do with some exercise as well."

The blonde shrugged. "I went for a run this morning."

"I did pull ups!"

"Pulling yourself out of bed doesn't count."

"I _will_ do pull ups!" She amended. Really, Ruby didn't mind a little exercise- it took a fair bit of muscle to swing Crescent Rose around- but she didn't keep as strict a regime for a number of reasons. The first being: she liked to _enjoy_ her time off.

Blake merely looked up from her book, ears canting back briefly.

"Right, well, then, I'm off."

Weiss left the room, allowing her teammates to spring together, all wearing smiles.

"Oh, man, this is going to be great!"

"Yeah, I can't _wait_ for her to open her locker." Yang laughed. "She's going to be so floored!"

"I do hope we'll be around when she sees it." Blake tilted her head slightly. "You know we're not going to hear the end of it for a while."

"It's not like she's going to be _mad_." Ruby reasoned, though she didn't doubt the veracity of the Faunus' claims. "She's just going to try to one up us or something."

"Oh, I can hear it already." Her sister adjusted her posture and raised her voice. "How dare you three keep a secret like this from _me_ , really, are we _not_ teammates, we're not supposed to _keep_ secrets!"

The three of them laughed.

This was going to be _good_.

* * *

The weekend came to an end and they returned to classes with anticipation. However, after a few days, Weiss didn't seem to act like anything had happened. Which, okay, they had some tests and bookwork on Monday and Tuesday, but surely she checked her weapon locker at some point, right? Ruby couldn't help it; she'd started to get discouraged.

Did Weiss not like the new plate? Did she even notice?

A hand smacked her shoulder, startling her away from staring blankly at her textbook while supposedly studying. "Hey!"

"Ruby." Weiss crossed her arms over her chest, starting down at her with just a hint of fury. "What did you do with it?"

She frowned. "With what?"

"With Myrtenaster!" Throwing her hands into the air, the heiress immediately launched into a rant. "When I noticed it wasn't in my locker on Monday, I didn't mention it, because maybe you'd put it in yours for some reason, but it's _Wednesday_ and we have a combat exam in two days! I need to practice!"

"Wait- Yang!" Leaning around her partner, she looked over at her sister. "Did you not put Weiss' weapon in _her_ locker?"

"What?" The blonde blinked. "I didn't- _you_ were supposed to put Myrtenaster back!"

"Hold on." Blake sat up in her bed. " _Neither_ of you put it back?" Then she leaned over, reaching under her bed and pulling the rapier in question out. "Are you two serious?"

"Hey, it was under _your_ bed!" Yang snapped her fingers. "And you were the last one to work on it!"

"I brought it up here so you two could see it! _Ruby_ should've put it back!"

"Yang said she was excited about Weiss' reaction and she'd already gone out on a run!" She defended herself. "I thought _she_ put it back!"

" _What_ are you _absolute dolts_ screaming about?" With a huff, the heiress marched over, finally retrieving her weapon.

"WE DID SOMETHING NICE BUT _SHE_ FORGOT TO GIVE IT TO YOU!" All three of them spoke in tandem and-

Okay. Granted, they probably _should've_ talked about who put Myrtenaster where. It wasn't any one, single person's fault.

But also, Ruby thought, it wasn't _hers_.

She couldn't really see Weiss' face but she could see the slight shake in her shoulders as she stared down at Myrtenaster's guard.

"How _dare_ you," she said, and for a moment the three exchanged worried glances because they could hear the warble in her voice, but then she snapped her head up to look at them, and they could very clearly see the tears she just barely held back. "How _dare_ you three do something nice for me with absolutely _no_ warning!"

"Wait, Weiss, don't cry!" Ruby rushed over, throwing her arms around her teammate.

She wasn't the only one, quickly joined by Blake and Yang as they surrounding the heiress while she clutched her weapon to her chest. "Yeah, c'mon, no tears!"

"We thought you would like it?" Blake offered, ears twitching.

"Of course I like it!" Despite a tear or two slipping out, she cleared her throat and tried glaring at them, though it… wasn't very effective. "But here you three are, engraving my rapier, and I have no idea how to repay you! I don't know enough about engraving-"

"Actually." Yang smiled, reaching up to run a hand through her hair. "Ruby noticed one of the guard plates was damaged, so we wanted to replace it for you. The engraving was all Blake."

"It was Ruby's idea." The Faunus shrugged slightly. "I just… added a few touches."

"Yang machined the parts though and bought the materials!" She smiled, catching her partner's expression as she obviously fought back even _more_ tears. "You deserve it, Weiss!"

"Not yet," she replied, before carefully tossing Myrtenaster on her bed and doing her absolutely best to return their hugs. "But I'm going to."

Ruby smiled, happy that it all turned out for the best and enjoying the group hug with her team.

She just hoped Weiss didn't go overboard with her 'payback'; there were a terrifying number of things the heiress to the SDC could buy and they only had a dorm room.


End file.
